UPSIDE DOWN FLAMINGOS

so depression is a thing

maybe evolutionary
maybe natures hard brake on a mad curve
maybe a circuit breaker
maybe its systems down for essential maintenance

maybe its the black pool of everything that it feels like

maybe its truth lifting the veil and slapping you in the face
forcing a healthier recalibration

maybe its the kid shouting that the emperor is naked

maybe its karmas hand on your shoulder
you look round
and karma is shaking its head

maybe its that painting The Scream
maybe its tungsten drill bits in your frontal lobe
maybe its an extreme diet
ha

it had upsides  of course not many

fags were one
fags tasted GOOD when i was down in the white noise
staggeringly GOOD 

cold sweat and cigarette smoke are brothers like fish and chips

i would sit on the back step looking at wet autumn leaves
enormous dread would tie my gut into a tight knot 
overhead a stork would fly by so very very slowly

he came the same time every morning

i never named him

and cos i am on a hill in the distance the stork was in the sky
so when he got here he was only rooftop high

he could have been an upside down flamingo
i wouldnt have blinked

anyway fags  i would EAT the smoke from my fags
blow it out my nose like cold morning exhaust
blow smoke out in place of speaking

i was like a campfire without the stories

in those puffing moments i was doing a Thing
i was Occupied and it made sense to the frayed edges

something to do instead of wishing for a zoned oasis
wishing for an eternal pool hall afternoon

not that you believe in these things anymore

fags dont just fill time

no

they ARE time  using it up  taking it away

and when tv was nonsense
just mad pixels
i would smoke

and when music
poor music
was just a racket
intolerable
i would smoke

and dinner
lunch
the meals
remember meals ?
i would smoke

at work i was outside all the time
i was behind the compactor 
where the student drs smoked weed
theyd made a shelter from damp cardboard
well they laughed when i found them cos they were high
and i smoked
didnt blink

could have been upside down flamingos for all i cared

like that little black cat who came to live with me
he was keen for refuge
and he came down off the top kitchen units at last
and he scratched the hell out of my new leather sofa

i just watched
smoked
he could have been an upside down . . . well you get it

but fags oh fags
well they rule the bad lands like old kings

whatcha doin ford ?  smokin . . .

it was a good enough answer for those days i think

from www.treehugger.com

SPACE POPS

    SPACE WALK POP

     back then     up there
                walking in space

  gagarin 
   said -

 i feel excellent
 i can see the clouds
   and the sea


    EVIL SUITS

 i feel the satellites looking down

    i
  feel
   the  evil  suits
            planning
           white  male  madness
               downtown 

       i smell
  discarded  science 
          put out
        in the back alley bin


    TV CATTLE

      we
       are
  fair weather cattle

    mooing 
       at 
   our 
        glass opium moon


    GROUNDED

       the sky is pale
     i hope she is not ill

 pebbles cast
            long shadows
      like they are kings

   and a fat man
     walking in the park
 places his dogs compostible shit
    in a forever plastic bag
         and
      properly
          he
       puts it 
   in the correct supplied bin


    LAND BASED

   in a suburban bungalow bubble
       complicit
         consuming
       dreaming
     living
       loving
          feeding

 and thinking
      that  
        just 
        thinking of justice
      dont bring it on

 

from yuri-gagarin.com

CATRICK SWAYZE

GARAGE DOORS ETC

FROSTED WRAP

THREE POPS

HUGS

a
hug

a solid human hold

is
the
best
essential
medicine
in these touch screen
days

science agrees

late as usual

and
im
like
duh


DAYS

days are long

so long

birds
are
black flicks of a nib
against
a
grey nothing sky



RUG

the glass people
are tanned
with evened white teeth

they climb out the sitcom
with
their
vivid lives

and gasp for air
on
the flat reality
of
a
hardwearing rug

from pinterest

FUTURE POPS

1.

 we are  


   lunatics


2. 

    the power is on

   but  

      the lights
     only come  
      out the  
      slave tv 

 where the  sleep police
   camo bait homeless
    and the growing  
   migrant bottleneck

3.

   we search  
 for tomorrow
        in the plastic 
     of the 
  kitchen bin

   and all the 
   choir boys
    are all in
          hiding
 with  the 
  redundant
  librarians
    behind  
  paperback walls


4.

      in a
  midnight office
     a gp 
  attacks her pc
   with a glass stiletto heel

         and
  
  12 yr olds fight wars
    on adapted  ps4s
  in the 
     9to5
 job center 
         bull pen


5. 

     the truth
   is on the black market
  for
     one hundred million pounds

  but  we  are  lunatics
        whod
     rather
      steal
  shoes

from deaconchronicle.com

FOUR DEAD POPS

OH NO I'M DYING !

  half way
    to
   the 
 indestructible destination

  i  find my wisdom learned
      is
     not 
   easily applied

    from
      out 
     the 
      bargain bin
 of
the  united supermarket of britain


OH NO THEYRE DYING !

  patients gurn on tubes

    skin like paper
   robbed  of colour

       they
       are
     in  between
       this
        world
   
    and the . . . ?


BEFORE DYING     

      in pain
       on a 
  stone and  dogturd island

         tescos now
  where there were 
        druids  before

   
BEFORE DYING 2 (YEW TREE)     

     play
      in the 
    playground

  while the playground
       is
      here

 but play-it-safe children
        
        as

   j i m m y s a v i l e

       used
        to
        say
     sunday nights
      on  the  bbc

from www.museumoflondonprints.com

THE END OF THE KIPPLE RIVER

( box says-
 'carbon neutral delivery'

but
its
all
cardboard and cellophane

and
   a diesel engine roars away )

           my new
          whatever -

     a moose fader  
   a nano claw  
    a hub opus

 its  some  piece  of  plastic

   just  another  piece  of  plastic

    it did  excite me
  with  its potential

    until it flopped on the door mat
       in the brown envelope rain

         and now its          too here
        too  sane

      at the end of the kipple river
        its  need  is washed away

   i am  in a forced retreat
    wearing  a given stare 

    i  dont even  want to open it
          anymore

from business.nbcnews.com

I ATE SAND

   as 
    a
 kid
out on the 
   halfday closing
  dogshit  pavement

 i  would hide behind
  the  parked cars
 on our  dead end street

  in a blue and white

   supermarket tracksuit

  
 i would twist ankles on the kerb stones
   and  look for rainbows 
       in  the 
        spilled oil
  on the forecourts
     stony  cement
   
  we sheltered from the rain
    in an open garage on this forecourt
   silver jubilee rain  1977
  i was dressed as a cowboy
   and ate some sand
       from the floor in there 

 and  where ever the cement
  was cracked interestingly
   or the  tarmac melted
 into  torn topped waves
i thought it was slow earthquakes
     or lazy volcanoes
  coming up thru
       englands ground

 i hid like the bellisario heroes
        i saw on tv
   wishing i had black hair
        was called john
 and  had all the 
     panini stickers  in the world
   
  i hid  behind  granadas and cortinas
     with vinyl roofs
       hot to the touch
  and  behind an black opel 
    that seemed exotic then
  and  behind a white work van
    with  LANG written on the side
      always parked  
 in the  penny lane  lay-by
   where the flea dart bushes grew
 over the pink and yellow 
     patio slabs

  there was no sad afternoon sun
   or  school morning panic 
    down there
 where the tires rested on the blacktop
    
    and no one was looking for me
   so  i  kind of always won
    and 
      it 
     felt 
          very  
               safe

from aronline.co.uk

CAT STUDY

ABOVE US ONLY SKY

DISMISSED

   was
  going
   to 
 write about
   the  human condition
 our  failing experiment

 it was going to rhyme 

  tweet     wealth
    eat     health
   meat    stealth

         see ?

 but 
 i 
  am 
   not  feeling generous today
 and  not sure we deserve reflection

     so
 i  am going to listen to the same record
  i  heard eight times already today
 because  i feel like  i am in a bubble
            or
     a museum
         or
 a  starship  passing
      with 
  better things  to do

from pinterest

BOT POP

 robots live
   already

   in
 the car dash parking

    inside
 the kitchen island washing

   up 
  in  the sky
 walking calculated circles
   &
  targeted arcs
    always watching

already  they haunt 
   the empty history of space
 towels down on mars beach loungers 

 give them their faces already
so they might know 
         love

 and
choose 
 a
side

from giphy.com

THAT AUTUMN THAT BREAKDOWN

  i felt the earth turning then
 when time  attacked  before dawn

    i  trod carefully
      in strobe lights
   on somethings edge 
        and
       fell
   down the day
       into 
         a
 peaceless knotted 3 am night

   i had no continuity 
       there  were
 strangers in the mirror

   it was a release  long coming
  antique pressure 
           mushrooming     
            in
           the
          golden
      ziggy   stardust
           leaves

  and my monday morning therapy
      was a  me  hour
       after
       the
     tears
        dried
       in  a
 winter low  white wine  sun

from lessprit.deviantart.com

OH DEAR TERESA MAY

(oh) dear teresa may,


     please dont.  



     yours 
     sincerely,


     signed

     basic sanity
     &
     conscientious responsibility


     PS
     just dont

     PPS
     hows the investigation into election fraud 
     by 19 police forces doing ?

from www.intsmensorg.info

   

WAITING FOR THE PHONE I WRITE 15 POEMS ALL THE SAME, THIS IS ONE

 waiting for the phone to ring

 waiting for the phone to ring

   i have  no appetite
  my  coffee is cold

  the birds out the window
   play on  the
    red berry bush

    i feel like i am in amber
   or
     an egg

 waiting  for 

 the  phone

 to  ring

from freeiconspng